This Is Not This Heat, the group put together by Charles Hayward and Charles Bullen to play the music of This Heat, have announced their last London gig. This will take place at The Albany on 25th May 2019. Says Charles Hayward, "This Is Not This Heat has been a fantastic experience revisiting the music from 40 years ago and playing to audiences across the world, Japan, US, Europe and UK, so much love and enthusiasm. But moving forward has always been deep inside the music and we need to resolve that contradiction. Now. To play our final London gig at the Albany feels right, This Heat played Rock Against Racism gigs at the old building and we look forward to returning to South London and a vibrant community of resistance and creativity."
Hayward also paid tribute to the musicians who had made the project a possibility. "So much love, enthusiasm, imagination and skill from the musicians who have helped Charles Bullen and me to realise the new versions of the songs, Alex Ward, Frank Byng, James Sedwards, Daniel O’Sullivan, Merlin Nova and at the earlier gigs, Alexis Taylor, John Edwards, Chris Cutler, Thurston Moore."
As well as the Albany gigs there will be US dates and a small number of UK dates in May leading up to the Albany including Glasgow. The band will play a residency in Copenhagen during CPH:DOX in March with one night dedicated to the rare occurrence of the band improvising sound tracks to the early films of British artist filmmaker John Smith. There’s also an intriguing hint that the project isn’t quite entirely over: "This Is Not This Heat was always conceived as an umbrella project title. So while the band will be ending with some international dates by the summer there are ideas in development."
